


Stories of the Second Self: Arrise to Power

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [75]
Category: Urban Fantasy - Fandom, witches - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:28:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22567060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: After Tisha's dream, which left her levitating in air on waking, she sets out to learn who this Papa Delane Henry is. Thinking he's the one responsible for the magic that lifted her up in her sleep and the large owl following her around, Tisha decides to use the owl to trace Papa Henry down. On meeting the undead real estate mogol and voodoo practitioner Tisha will learn what drew Papa Henry to her.
Series: Alter Idem [75]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Arrise to Power

Even since the dream, Tisha obsessed over this unknown Delane Henry. She found just one Delane Henry in Cincinnati and it turned out that he was a real estate mogul. Only, there was no company office listed, just some of the more prominent properties under his name. Also, Tisha noticed in her search, there were no photos of him. She couldn't know if the black man with gold capped dreads she saw in her dreams was really him.

Tisha went to many of the larger buildings, thinking that his real estate firm rented or owned a suite in them, but she found other businesses instead. Their administrative assistants knew nothing of how to get a hold of Delane Henry, which Tish thought odd given they leased from him. Either he didn't have contact information, or these other companies didn't provide that to their front desk people.

Coming out of one building near dusk, Tisha noticed that owl again. It was the same one that turned up on her window after she had woken up to find herself float up by the ceiling. It appeared to her a few times over the subsequent weeks, and more often after her boyfriend left her. He thought her search was a sign of dissatisfaction with him, despite the fact she really had loved him and still did.

The owl looked right at her and then turned its head to some other spot she couldn't see. Looking back at her, it repeated the other direction.

"What?" Tisha asked the owl. "Where am I supposed to go?"

It took off in the direction it looked, and Tisha shrugged with frustration. She got in her car to go home, but after pulling into the road Tisha realized the owl's flight was visible. She turned down a different road to follow and quickly found herself overtaking the owl. She circled the block while the owl kept a steady heading.

After half an hour the owl led Tisha to a spot in Eden Park known as Twin Lakes. She's been here a couple times before with her ex, but not since the dream. Already, she felt a pull into the place and parked her car to explore further.

This time the owl's flight was in following her, though sometimes it landed near splits in the path, hinting which turn Tisha should take. It led her to a statue of a woman bent over a cauldron on a raised grassy hill. Around it was crescent of green water with a stone border.

Approaching the statue, Tisha half expected to find a note or something, but the statue was bare. Yet, another ethereal tug at her mind made her touch the statue. That's when the sense of power flowed into her, but this time also a sense of knowledge for using it. She first experienced it when looking at the owl after waking from her dream, only to then see herself through the owl's eyes.

Again, she saw herself from the perspective of the owl, which spiraled around her in flight to then land on the cauldron part of the statue. Tisha looked around to see other people in the park, and knew that what she needed to do couldn't have this audience.

Leaving the site, Tisha drove around town, got something to eat, and then came back after sundown. She stood before the woman in bronze and the words came to her.

"Oh Bokor, come to me," Tisha chanted, "Come to one who bids you. Come to me, who seeks your guidance."

Tisha didn't know why she spoke those words, especially Bokor, however she let the spirit lead her in the incantation that went on well into the night. Her head swam in delirium, and somehow the stars above appeared as though not blotted out by city lights. She heard nothing of the world around her, but felt the owl's presence nearby.

Reaching sheer exhaustion, where even her jaw and tongue tired, Tisha caught herself wavering. She let that turn into a circular motion about her waist befitting this ritual. Her chants became mumbles as she lost coherence before hearing approaching steps.

"He has finally come for me." Tisha chanted on seeing the suited man with dreadlocks just as she dreamt, "He has finally come for me...."

"Oh shit! he's finally come for me," Tisha gasped, on seeing the rest of his description bore true.

Solid black eyes startled her, as the man Tisha knew to be Delane Henry approached sounding Jamaican. "You have power, Tisha. It was not you who were drawn to me, but I to you."

His teeth were worse than his eyes. Incisors, canine teeth, even the premolars she could see, were all normal in length but sharp and curved inward.

"What are you?" Tisha asked.

"I am many things," Delane replied, "But you know one of those. I am a Bokor of the Voodoo faith. Before, it was just a tradition, but now it comes with great power. I can teach you this power, and also learn from you."

"What do you mean?" Tisha asked, now wanting to back away from his advance.

"In Voodoo, we have no familiars," Delane explained waving at the owl, and then dropped the accent to sound like some chipper white guy. "It's a cool thing you have goin' on."

"Familiar?" Tisha repeated, looking to the owl.

"Yeah," Delane responded with his light cheery tone, "You see, the familiar is where your power comes from, and it was that bond I first sensed between you. I didn't make you float to the ceiling that night. You did."

"It can't be real," Tisha denied, shaking her head.

"It wasn't before," Delane admitted, and then raised a finger. "But it is now. We're entering a new age, and it's really neat. I don't suppose you've played D and D."

"What?" Tisha couldn't believe where this was going. "Ah, no. Seriously, what's happening to me?"

"Like I said, you have power now," Delane reiterated, placing his hand to his chest. "I developed it too. Of course, I also turned into this."

"What?" Tisha bid, as he stepped up and looked down at her.

"Ohh, apparently, this is what vampires are going to look like," Delane exuberantly revealed.

Tisha was about to scream, but Delane waved his hand and she felt faint for just a split second before snapping out of it. "Whoa, you ain't pullin' no shit on me!"

"Now that is interesting," Delane grinned, "I've never seen that not work. It's a spell I wrote up, but you're already protected from it."

The owl's presence felt stronger than ever, and Tisha needn't look to know where it perched. From the bird she got a sense that she was in no danger, and considered what Delane Henry told her.

It couldn't hurt to consider what he offered, Tisha thought and shrugged. "Okay, lets see wha'chu got."

"Thatta girl!" Delane whipped his finger in the air with his beaming charm, like a PBS kids host and offered his elbow for her to take. "Tisha, we're gonna have so much fun!"


End file.
